At the beginning of March we set SMART goals for Memorial Day. Take a look at your plan. How have you done over the past month? The past week? What does your log tell you about corrections that need to be made. Do you need to change all your goals or just one?

If you are walking to the bathroom today, then in most cases you can walk for your health. If you have doubts check with your doctor.

Start with and 8 week plan. We are starting today so our initial plan ends on June 22, 2011.

After that just keep going. This is an everyday event.

See yourself walking and feeling great. Get rid of your fear.

Clear away an obstacles. Think about anything that might prevent you from completing your walking goal each day.

No time. Get up 30 minutes earlier. Walk when you are finished with work instead of sitting in traffic. Split your walk into three parts. Put your treadmill in the living room or where your children play.

Have trouble getting started. Lay out your clothes or wear when you have.

Get a pair of shoes. They do not have to be fancy.

Plan to take your children with you.

Don't live in a safe place. Travel to a Mall or safer park.

Aim High – Start Slow. Start with an amount of time you are comfortable with at least 30 minutes should be your minimum goal at the end of eight weeks. Eventually, it would be great to be at 60 minutes. There is nothing wrong with starting at 5-10 minutes and working your way up.

Increase each week by 10%. If you feel great make it 20%. For instance if your are walking 20 minutes each day for a total of 140 minutes, then your increase the next week by 14 minutes that week.

Strut Your Stuff! Proper posture will help you avoid injury and get the most of your walk. Your perfect posture is relative based on your body. Some of us will never have perfect posture due to injuries and age. Do your best. Stand tall with your stomach drawn in. Think if the space between your rib cage and hips as a cylinder wrapped around you. Squeeze your shoulder blades together and tuck your chin to bring your ears in line with your shoulder. You should feel like your head is connected to a balloon by a string. Your knees should be slightly flexed during your stride. The softer your foot lands the better. Tip: watch your shadow to check out your tall posture.

Benefits of Walking
As always you want to check with your doctor be starting any exercise program. A great way to start is to walk. The next time I'll talk to you about how to get started.
There are many benefits. If you are concerned about the effects of aging, there is great news. A study ay the University of Pittsburg recently showed that walking six to nine miles a week can increase gray matter in older adults. Walking could reduce your chances of developing Alzheimer's Disease. Speaking personally walking increases my confidence, flexibility, and mood. In these stressful days taking a walk can have many benefits. Leave that iPod or phone at home and listen to the birds sing.
The Mayo Clinic says there are additional benefits :
Lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (the "bad" cholesterol)
Raise high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (the "good" cholesterol)
Lower your blood pressure
Reduce your risk of or manage type 2 diabetes
Manage your weight
Improve your mood
Stay strong and fit
Walking: Trim your waistline, improve your health, Mayo Clinic, < http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/walking/HQ01612>
Walking Boosts Brain Health, Shirley Archer, JD, MA, IDEA Health and Fitness, < http://www.ideafit.com/fitness-library/walking-boosts-brain-health >

Let me start out with a few facts from the National Weight Control Registry(1):
Registry members have lost and average of 66 pounds and kept it off for 5.5 years.
98% of the participants modified their food intake.
94% increased their physical activity.
Most reported eating a low calorie, low fat diet and doing high levels of activity.
78% eat breakfast everyday.
75% weigh themselves once a week.
62% watch less that 10 hours of TV per week.
90% exercise, on average, about 1 hour each day.
What this comes down to is that these people made changes in their routines. They also developed ways to self monitor. How many of us avoid stepping on that scale as if it was a land mine? The same holds true for food logging. Some how we convince our selves that since we switched to baked potato chips we can eat as much as we want. Food logging is a way to self monitor. The great thing about combining a weekly weigh in with a food log is that you can begin to relate what and how much you eat to to your weight change. Let me remind you everyone is different when it comes to timing the result of changing food intake. Most people will see a five to ten day lag in their weight changes so you may want to look at five to seven days prior. Here's what food logging does for you.
Moves you towards planning your meals and shopping. You will become more aware of how your shopping can support you good eating habits.
Develops awareness when you are making choices. Because you have seen how many calories a can of soda has in it , then you are more likely to choose water or other beverage instead. Consider a stick of gum that has ten calories. If you chew a piece every day and it is the 10 excess calories you consume for the day. In a year you will gain a pound (360 X 10 = 3600, 3500 calories = one pound). Let's do the math on one coke, 97 X 360 = 34,920/3500 = 9.97 pounds.
Educates. Logging your food everyday will educate you about portion size and macro nutrient content (fat, carbohydrates, and protein) of the food you eat. Combine that with know how many calories you burn (http://my.apexfitness.com/vip/fitness_calculators/daily_caloric_needs.php) and you are on your way to weight loss goal.
Gets results. The more you log the better results you will get.
Here's how to do it.
Buy a calorie counting book or sign up on line.
Log everything you eat with the quantity.
Measure your food. 85% of people under estimate portions.
Don't wait, start today.
1. NWCR Facts, http://www.nwcr.ws/Research/default.htm

Here is the great news. You can look and feel great in time for Memorial Day and you have twelve weeks to do it. By setting SMART goals here is a list of what you could accomplish:

- lose between twelve and twenty-four pounds.

- three four week cycles of training (stabilization, strength, and hypertrophy).

- complete a 5k or 10k training program.

- learn to swim one hundred yards.

- train to walk three to six miles.

- reduce body fat by 5 percent.

All you have to is Make the Plan and stick to it. Remember as you go through this process that a good plan takes all of your responsibilities into consideration. You do not have to follow this order. In fact some people like to figure out what is attainable before making there goal statement. that is where getting some help can come in. Think about getting a trainer or doctor to help you.

Specific.

State clearly what you are going to accomplish. This is your goal statement. Include What the current situation is and what are going to do. Here is an example. "I weight 170 pound and I do zero exercise. At the end of twelve weeks I will weight 160 pounds and be able to walk three miles in 35 minutes. To accomplish this I will reduce what I eat by one third and walk six days each week. I will keep a daily journal of my eating and exercise to keep myself accountable."

Measurable.

How will you know whether you have reached your goal. Say how often and when you will measure. For weight loss weekly weighing is Ok, but daily is not recommended. Will you take measurements? Which ones? Here is an example list.

10 pound weight loss.

- Weigh in every Friday.

- Measure waist and hips every two weeks.

Three miles in 35 minutes.

- Timed one mile walk on Tuesday in March.

- Timed two mile walk on Tuesday in April

- Timed two and one half mile walks in May.

Attainable.

Double check your goals here. Look for good rules of thumb or ask you doctor. Some good rules of thumb are.

One to two pound weight loss per week.

Increase time by 10 percent of less per week.

Walk before you run, run before you sprint. Progress your exercise to avoid injury.

Realistic.

If you know you are going to to working on a big project at work flor the next three months, setting a goal to run a marathon in three months may not be workable. Look at all your responsibilities and ask yourself if you can commit to reaching these goals. If the answer is no, Go Back and revise them.

Timely.

Are your goals and objectives grounded in time? Do you know when you are done for each goal? Look for words like maybe and someday. If you find them, Go Back and replace them with a realistic time frame.

Now that you have your SMART goals written down, the next step is to make a detailed plan. How much detail? As much as you need. Some people need an hourly schedule with a list of exercises to keep on track. Others only need an item on their daily todo list. Try out a couple different ways to see what works for you.

It is almost three months into the year. How are you doing at keeping your New Year's resolution? If your resolution was to exercise daily and you are not staying active, then you are headed for being one of the 60% of people who do not make exercise a part of their life. We all know that most people who start out with a weight loss goal do not succeed. You CAN Turn this around. Do not waste another day.

Start again. Have faith that you can do it. Wake up in the morning before you are even fully awake tell yourself today you will be an active healthy person and smile.

Identify your barriers to success and plan to conquer each one. Consider getting a trainer to help you plan out how to this. We are experts at helping people fit wellness into their lives and make change. We can also help you get the most of your time in gym or park. My goal is to graduate people who can maintain their fitness on their own for the rest of their life.

Review your goals. Be sure your goals are reasonable. Losing 50 pounds in two months normally is not realistic unless you have assembled a team of professionals to help you. Set three or four goals, write them down with the time to get them accomplished. For example: "I want to be able to exercise on the elliptical for 30 minutes continuously in one month. " or "I want to be able to be able to climb two flights on stairs by March 30th without getting winded."

Start logging you food. Food Intake is 70% of you results. We as fitness professionals know that the longer you log food the better your eating habits become. Be honest and stay with it.

When was the last time you held hands with the one you love? Taking a walk out side gives you the perfect opportunity. So grab your special someone and go for a walk. Instead of getting a big meal at a fancy restaurant share a meal. You will save some calories and you get to find out more about each other.

As you know I have two workouts on my schedule for awhile to jump start my weight loss. The results have been good. Remember, if you decide to do this you should always check with your doctor first and your fitness professional.

I plan for not more than ten percent more workout time in my schedule. So I was working out about one hour a day six days per week. That is 360 minutes. Plus 10% is 396 minutes or 66 minutes each day. So when I work out twice a day can do two 36 minute workouts. I sometimes split it 40 and 25. This week I tried 3 days at 90 minutes and three days at 45 minutes.

I make sure my intensity varies. One day this week I made a very hard day with short fast cardiorespiratory and resistance training in the morning. In the evening I did interval training with a heavy leg workout. For two days after that I kept a lower intensity. This way I aviod injury. Do not feel like you need to high intensity training to make this work. Using moderate intensity training (65-75% of max heart rate) works just as well.

Do:- Get at least four hours rest between sessions.- Eat, this is not the time for a crash diet. Keep a reasonable deficit if weight loss is your goal (between 500 and 1000 calories).- Hydrate. Drink 8-16 ounces of water before and after. You may need more than that to replace fluid lost. If you will working out for more than an hour, sipping on a 6-8% carbohydrate drink will help keep you fueled. - Listen to your body. Pain and cramps could mean injury. The goal here is to sustain the workout schedule. Lower the intensity or stop exercising.

I was able to get my two workouts in yesterday. One in morning and one in the evening. The Bodybugg makes it easy to see how I did. My protein intake was low for me at 21% so I need to get that up so I can keep my Lean Body Mass high.

Today will be a challenge since we have a winter storm and I can not get outside. I am planning on keeping my calorie in take low to make up for my lower activity and doing a body weight circuit in the house using a home stair climber, stairs, resistance bands, and dumb bells.

Most of us do not get enough water. Unless your doctor has told you differently, on average we should drink 96 ounces of water or about three quarts. I usually carry a 24 ounce water bottle with me and refill it four times a day. Remember that soda pop, coffee, and tea count for one-half the the ounces. Why is this important. From personal experience I can tell you I am less bloated and I lose weight better when my water intake is correct. Water helps our endocrine glands function properly, reduces fluid retention, improves liver function so you burn more fat, decreases appetite, helps regulate body temperature, and maintains proper blood volume. If you are an older woman like me sipping water during your workout can help keep you cool so hot flashes don't ruin your work out. Your workout will feel easier if you are hydrated. Studies have shown that even a two percent reduction in fluid loss will affect your performance. So Drink Up.

I am a retired US Army officer. I have a disabling back injury. In 2007 I could barely walk across the room because I weighed over 200 pounds. I got a trainer and got fit again. I was so impressed with the results that I started studying became a trainer. Today I am focusing on my own fitness and career and not accepting new clients.